[blindlaw] Mac Users Out There?

Sun Jun 19 23:21:58 UTC 2011

I know the answer to some of your questions.  First, apple comes with a
great email program and safari, a web browser.  Both of these are
accessible.  Apple Pages is a part of the IWork suite of programs, which can
be purchased for $79.00 with each mac.

-------------------------------------------
Daniel K. Beitz
Wienner & Gould, P.C.
950 University Dr., Ste. 350
Rochester, MI  48307
Phone:  (248) 841-9405
Fax:  (248) 652-2729
dbeitz at wiennergould.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Dennis Clark
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 4:37 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Mac Users Out There?

Hello Mark and everyone,

It will be very helpful for us to hear from blind users who have real world
experience using the Mac.  I have just spent a month upgrading to Windows 7
as a result of needing new server hardware, and we are still limping along
with less functionality than before the upgrade. The cost to me in lost
time, lost functionality, decreased efficiency of my employees and myself,
and the cost of paying my employees salaries while they figure out how to do
their work in this new and unfamiliar environment is totally unwarranted. 
As a result I have decided that we will be moving to a Mac or Linux
solution, and I am hopeful that it can be the Mac using voiceover. Since one
of my objectives is to eliminate Windows based programs from my office if
possible, I am not interested in using bootcamp or fusion. If you could tell
us about the programs you have used with voiceover, and which have worked
well and which have not, it would be very valuable.

As attorneys we more often than not work with M.S. Word files, though I do
not think that this means we must use M.S. Word or office.  Which Apple Mac
word processors have you used with voiceover, and are they able to open,
work with, and then save files in Word format?

Next, I would be curious to know which Apple Mac email programs are provided
with or can be purchased with the Mac, and how well they work  with
Voiceover.  How easy is it to save attachments with these programs, and how
easy is it to create folders and move messages into them from the inbox.

Next, which web browsers are provided or available for the Mac using
Voiceover, and what are their pros and cons when compared to IE or Firebox?

Have you had any experience with backup software for the Mac, since this is
very important for a law firm?

For those of us who are blind, optical character recognition software has
become an important part of our accessibility arsenal. I was pleased to
learn this morning that ABBY Finereader has a version of their OCR software
for the Mac called Abby Express.  I use ABBYY frequently on our Windows
machines, so this removes a big obstacle when considering whether or not to
move to the Mac. Have you had any experience with this program or any other
OCR software on the Mac?  The only criticism that I saw about ABBY Express,
was that it uses a twain interface, which is apparently not standard on the
Mac.  Other than that, users thought it did an excellent job on optical
character recognition.

Have you read or scanned books on the Mac, and if so, what scanner and
software do you use?  I do most of my reading with Kurzweil under Windows,
because I like many of its  features such as that both lines and pages can
be of any length, and are not artificially imposed as is the case with most
word processors such as M.S. Word.  This is particularly important for
reading books, where one must know their actual location in a book to create
accurate citations.  Additionally, I find Kurzweil's multilevel bookmark
system to be very helpful when reading case documents and pleadings.  I have
been hoping that  Kurzweil would make a Mac version available, but I have
heard nothing to suggest that this might happen.

I want to thank Mark and others for reading this lengthy email, and I would
really appreciate hearing your thoughts.

All the best,
Dennis

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark BurningHawk" <stone_troll at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Mac Users Out There?

>I use a mac for almost everything, for what it's worth.  I offer tutoring 
>services (write of list) or will just answer questions if I can. I'm not a 
>lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I use a Mac and like it MUCH better 
>than the PC.
>
> Mark BurningHawk
> Skype and Twitter:  BurningHawk1969
> Home:  Http://MarkBurningHawk.net/
> Namaste!
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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